Moss roses bloom in a section of a rural road in Đa Phước Commune, HCM City’s Bình Chánh District. — Photo plo.vn

HCM CITY — Huỳnh Thị Thu Hương, 46, waters moss roses she grows along a 100-metre section of a rural road linking to her house in Village 2, Quy Đức Commune, HCM City’s Bình Chánh District.

Hương also plants moss roses around her rice field near her house.

“I plant the flowers for two reasons, first, to create beautiful scenery around my house, second, to prevent passers-by from littering on the road,” she said.

Nguyễn Thị Sậu, 65, of the commune’s Village 3, has planted lots of moss roses around her house and on a section of a rural road in front of her house for the same reasons.

Sậu said when the flowers bloomed, some people stopped to take photos in her flower garden and even asked for seedlings to grow the flowers.

The flowers are also blooming on Nguyễn Văn Thời Street, the district’s Đa Phước Commune.

Huỳnh Thị Thu Hương is watering moss rose along a 100-metre section of a rural road linking to her house in Village 2, Quy Đức Commune.— Photo dantri.com.vn

They are among many local rural roads in two communes of Quy Đức and Đa Phước that were once known as being full of waste.

After the flowers bloomed, creating beautiful scenery for the rural roads, there has been no littering.

Nguyễn Thị Hai, a resident of Đa Phước Commune, said when it got dark before, many people were found dumping trash on a road near her house.

“It makes the road very messy and polluted,” she said.

After the local government provided fertiliser for local residents to grow the flowers, the road had a new look, she said.

“No one wants to dump the trash and damage the beautiful flowers,” she said.

Thân Văn Ngò, head of Village 3 of Đa Phước Commune, said the planting of moss rose along the roads started at the end of 2019 to prevent passers-by from littering.

The People’s Committee of Quy Đức Commune said the idea of planting moss roses along the rural roads came after a local veteran grew a very beautiful moss rose garden, creating pretty scenery for the commune.

The moss rose was an easy-to-grow flower, so the committee decided to ask local people to grow the moss rose along the rural roads to create beautiful scenery and prevent passers-by from littering.

Nguyễn Thị Hồng Hà, Party Secretary of Village 3, of the commune said many local residents had registered to plant the moss rose on many roads of the commune so far.

Local organisations, including the Veterans Association, the Women’s Union and the Youth Union have registered to plant the flowers along one road each, she said.

“The action has really changed the landscape of the commune and sharply reduced littering, causing environmental pollution and giving local authorities headaches,” she said.

Nguyễn Phan Thanh Thủy, chairwoman of the People’s Committee of the commune, said the success of the movement came from the active participation of local people.

The effectiveness of the movement had marked changes in the awareness of environmental protection of local people, she said.

The committee planned to call upon local residents living near other rural roads – hotspots for littering in the commune – to grow the flowers as well, she said. — VNS